The Making of Karateka
Interactive documentary tracing a student developer's early martial arts game
Digital Eclipse · Published by Digital Eclipse, Atari · Released Aug 29, 2023
- Reviews
- Very Positive
- 98% of 122
- Recent reviews
- Not enough recent
- Players
- 1
- daily peak, Oct 28, 2026
- Steam Deck
- Playable
- Last update on Steam
- 1 year ago
- Apr 9, 2025
Metacritic: 90/100 (critic reviews)
What is The Making of Karateka?
This single-player interactive documentary follows Jordan Mechner's development of Karateka on the Apple II. You explore a timeline of design documents and videos at your own pace, play original versions and prototypes, and try Karateka Remastered or the twin-stick shooter Deathbounce: Rebounded. The original games have save-anywhere, rewind, chapter selection, and director's commentary.
For you if...
- +you enjoy comparing early prototypes with finished games
- +you are interested in the history of cinematic games
Not for you if...
- −you want a conventional action game rather than historical exploration
What players say
98% of 122 reviews are positive
Players praise the preservation work and museum-like presentation, particularly how interviews and archival material connect the playable games to their development history.
Screenshots and trailer
The Making of Karateka system requirements
Minimum: HD 4800, 8 GB RAM.
As published by the developer.
Can my PC run The Making of Karateka?
Tell us your graphics card once and every game page will answer this for you.
Set up my PC →Minimum
- OS
- Windows 10
- Processor
- Intel i3 @ 3.0GHz or AMD equivalent.
- Graphics
- ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series, Nvidia GeForce 8800GT or greater
- Memory
- 8 GB RAM
Recommended
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
Does The Making of Karateka have co-op or multiplayer?
No: single-player only, no multiplayer modes declared.
Does The Making of Karateka run on Steam Deck?
Playable Playable: it runs on Steam Deck with some adjustments.
- Some in-game text is small and may be hard to read
- All functionality is accessible with the default controller configuration
- Shows Steam Deck controller icons
- Default graphics settings perform well on Steam Deck
PC version details
- DRM
- None declared on Steam
- Controller
- Full controller support
- Platforms
- Windows
- Achievements
- 19
- Steam features
- Cloud saves, Family Sharing
- Languages
- Full audio: English. Text only: French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Japanese.
Does The Making of Karateka use AI-generated content?
No AI-generated content is disclosed on the game's Steam page.
Self-reported by the developer under Steam rules: it covers AI content that ships in the game, not tools used to make it. Steam page checked on Oct 27, 2026. How to filter AI games on Steam
